


Tell Me All Your Dreams When You Wake Up

by jitters



Category: Persona 5
Genre: M/M, looks like i enjoy writing kisses apparently, persona 5 royal spoilers of course!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:00:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24766588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jitters/pseuds/jitters
Summary: It's February 2nd, and Ren feels like he's watching himself fall in love.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 19
Kudos: 249





	Tell Me All Your Dreams When You Wake Up

**Author's Note:**

> so 2/2 huh? how about 2/2?

The bell above the door rings through Ren’s ears as Akechi passes through it, the slam of the door muffling any other noise that follows. 

“Akechi--” Ren’s chest heaves, heart leaping so forcefully in his chest that he thrusts forward, hand reaching out towards nothing, too late to grab anything but air. He stares at the window, where he’d often watch to catch the first glimpse of Akechi arriving, noting how his expression so quickly changes whenever their eyes meet.

Right now, all he sees is darkness, no light to illuminate the street and his eyesight blurring inexplicably only making it worse. It’s too late, and he knows it. It has been the whole time. This reality, and every moment he spent with Akechi in these extra months, were a cruel reminder of what he could’ve had if he hadn’t failed to save him the first time.

“Joker?” Morgana’s voice stirs him from his stupor, and Ren turns on his heel with a shrug. He rubs at his eye with his knuckles only to find that his cheek is wet -- Oh. Explains the blurry thing.

“We have a big day tomorrow,” Ren tells him, without acknowledging his plea or the sorry sight he surely is, not much of a leader in a moment he should be standing stronger than ever. “I’m going to bed.”

His feet trudge up the stairs, clothes falling off his body and replacing themselves with pajamas without him realizing it. It’s automatic, like he’s already shutting down, but the second his head hits the pillow, his vision blurs again.

He almost laughs. “Seriously?” His hands cover his eyes, fingers gripping the hair above his forehead, and he lets his sigh turn into a laugh that forces him to sit up in bed, arching his back over his bent knees as it transforms into a sob that takes over him. Everything he held in from losing Akechi once -- Twice? -- before, spilling over and making him feel so much weaker than he has since they formed the Phantom Thieves.

All he wants is to sleep and wish that tomorrow didn’t have to come, but every time he closes his eyes he sees Akechi’s face, hears his voice, feels a churn in his stomach knowing the fate that awaits him, and Ren can’t lay still. His eyes are stinging and his back strained from the way he’s curled into himself, and he’s surprised to realize Morgana hasn’t said a word. 

“Pretty pathetic, huh?” he jokes, sniffling once and forcing himself to be done with it. But Morgana doesn’t answer back.

“You’ve got that right,” a familiar voice bites instead, and Ren’s head shoots up, back straightening as his shocked breath fills his lungs. 

“Akechi…” Ren’s voice calls, more softly than he intended, but it falls from his lips before he can process it.

Akechi moves in closer from his spot at the top of the stairs, slowly removing his scarf and draping it delicately over the banister before he takes a seat on the couch, crossing his arms. 

Ren swallows, lets a brief pause hang in the air. “Not gonna join me on the bed?” he grins, though his eyes are red and puffy, his hair disheveled, and even he knows it’s not up to par with his usual efforts.

Akechi shakes his head, but there’s an amusement in his eyes that always seems to appear when Ren says silly things around him. It makes him want to say them more. “Really, Joker? Trying to flirt after that pathetic display?”

Were it anyone else, Ren would take offense; Akechi isn’t anyone else. “Sorry,” he says quickly, trailing off. “I don’t feel like ‘Joker’ right now.”

Akechi gives him a long look, understanding those words more than anyone else might, and even with his eyes averted, Ren can feel every second of his thoughtful gaze. “Alright. Ren,” Akechi says, taking Ren by surprise. “Though I am curious if this drastic difference in images has always been so extreme. Could we really be so similar?”

More than Akechi will ever know, in fact, but Ren doesn’t tell him so, letting another moment of silence hang between them and appreciating that this is the first time Akechi has been in his bedroom alone. “Why are you here?” he asks wistfully, eyes unwilling to tear themselves away.

Akechi stiffens, though he matches Ren’s gaze without hesitance. “If you must know, that cat of yours chased me down and all but begged me to return. What a surprise to find you like this…”

“I’m sorry,” Ren cuts him off more confidently. “I’m strong enough to keep our promises, but not enough to keep myself from feeling anything about this.”

That seems to take Akechi by surprise, his mouth opening and closing. Ren’s never seen him speechless before. He likes it. He likes taking Akechi by surprise, he likes impressing him beyond his expectations and turning his expectations around all the same. 

“Why don’t you feel anything?” Ren continues, emboldened, shifting to the end of his bed and letting one leg hang off the side, leaning in. “Tomorrow, you’ll--” Ren clears his throat, still unable to get the word out. “Even knowing what’s going to happen, you don’t feel anything at all…”

“What meaning would there be in that?” Akechi says sharply, and Ren can almost feel the way Akechi’s jaw tightens from a few feet away. “It is as you said yourself -- Tomorrow everything that happened these past few months will be rendered pointless. Why would I be so weak as to lose myself in someone else’s fantasy?”

“Mine,” Ren interjects.

“Excuse me?”

“Not just someone’s fantasy. Mine.” Ren pushes up onto his feet, taking a seat beside Akechi on the couch and sitting close enough to feel the warmth he brings him but resisting the urge to touch him. “Maruki created a reality where this stuff could happen. But he didn’t wish for you. I did.” 

Akechi doesn’t turn or pull away when Ren gets so close, and even lets Ren continue to speak, even if his eyes are narrowed skeptically. When he doesn’t interrupt, Ren takes in a breath and continues.

“Maruki’s fake reality is bullshit, but not because you’re here. You’re the only good thing about it and I’m still giving it up for you.” Ren’s voice shakes, but he doesn’t give up. “You don’t care about that at all?”

Daring, Ren reaches out his hand, but Akechi is quick to match him, catching Ren’s wrist in his hand. “Don’t,” he says gently, but his eyes are serious. “Do  _ not  _ assume you know what I feel or care about.” 

“Then tell me,” Ren pleads, his free hand placing itself on top of Akechi’s. The contact is warm, and Ren forgets to prepare himself for when Akechi eventually snatches his hand away, turning his body from him.

“This conversation is over,” Akechi says curtly, looking so tall, so long and far away when he stands, and Ren is reaching out before he has time to reconsider it, on his feet behind Akechi and holding him by the hand.

“Stay,” Ren whispers, fingers gently curling around Akechi’s hand, taking advantage of every second of contact he allows. “Please. For me.”

Akechi’s shoulders fall, back towards him and head turned just slightly so Ren can see the profile of his face. “For you?” Akechi repeats, with his usual skepticism. “You seem quite confident in your importance all of a sudden.”

Ren steps in closer, letting his and Akechi’s arms hang down naturally, boldly threading their fingers. “You wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.”

Akechi lightly gasps, and even now, Ren can’t help but grin, eyes lingering on Akechi back, his shoulders, his neck, watching each muscle in him tense. “And so what?”

Ren tenses too. “Huh?”

Akechi pulls their hands apart, turning around to face Ren without putting any further distance between them. “You should know well enough by now that I don’t want your pity.”

“I don’t pity you, Akechi,” Ren steps in further, fingers carefully reaching to brush the arm of Akechi’s coat. “I like you.”

Akechi regards him for a long moment, longer than it would normally take him to dissect Ren’s expressions and ascertain his sincerity, and eventually he shakes his head. “That’s worse,” Akechi whispers, and Ren can feel Akechi’s breath on his face, but Akechi isn’t smiling -- far from it. “Everything this is, was, or could have been -- it all disappears tomorrow. Meaningless.” He drops his gaze, frown shown in his eyebrows more than on his lips. His blinks seem slower, if Ren isn’t imagining it. “Don’t let your sentimentality affect your goals.”

“Akechi…” Is all Ren can muster at first, finger tracing down the fabric of Akechi’s coat until his hand drops, heavy at his side. “My goal isn’t changing,” he clarifies defensively. “Don’t make me say goodbye to you an extra time.” His eyes plead. “Stay.”

“Every time I think I’ve figured you out…” Akechi trails off, but his features have softened, and when he looks up at Ren again, he almost seems relieved. 

He doesn’t verbalize an answer, but Ren figures it out anyway when Akechi huffs and removes his coat, laying it across the bannister where his scarf waits for it, and taking a stroll around the room. Ren rubs the back of his neck, inexplicably nervous. “Looking for something?”

“You have mysterious taste, Ren,” Akechi notes, examining each item on his shelves. The use of his given name makes Ren flush. “Every item in this room looks like it belongs to a different person.”

“You’ve been in my room before,” Ren reminds him, but Akechi is unphased. 

“Not just the two of us,” Akechi retorts, looking over at Ren with a coy smile. “I couldn’t study you with everyone watching, now could I?”

“Guess not.” Ren’s eyes widen. “Not much to learn though.”

“I suppose not,” Akechi lightly chuckles, straightening his back and approaching Ren with a hand on his chin, musing. “The most interesting things about you were always right in front of me after all.” He smiles a little too wide. “I mean your mind, of course.”

Ren clears his throat and shuffles his feet towards his bed, flopping onto his bed and reaching to touch Akechi’s glove where it rests under his pillow. He keeps it hidden. “You don’t have to act a certain way just because of where we are.”

“Is that so?” Akechi considers, approaching Ren’s bedside but carefully seating himself at the edge of it near the window. “From the beginning, you seemed to see past things no others are able to.”

He’s pensive more than anything, but Ren takes it as a compliment, cheeks warm. “The Detective Prince thing was always weird,” he laughs. “It’s not like I hated it. Made it easy to see how good-looking you are.” He leans back against the window, letting himself experience the vulnerability only Akechi can get him to feel. “But I always knew it was hiding something.”

“Oh, please,” Akechi sneers, leaning back against the same wall, their eyes forward but shoulders so close to touching. “You had no clue what my intentions were so early on.”

“Yeah,” Ren shakes his head. “But I knew there was more to you than that and that’s what I kept trying to get to.”

“And you did,” Akechi interrupts, but he hasn’t let go of the tension in his shoulders. “But why? As far as you knew, there was nothing to gain from that.”

Ren considers that for a moment; how most of his relationships have been formed out of convenience or need, all of them of use to him. But Akechi was the opposite -- if anything, his friends would have warned him against it if they’d known he was going out with him so often. “Your company,” he admits. “That’s what I wanted. To be around you.” On instinct, one of his hands hides itself under his thigh with no pocket to retreat to, and the other awkwardly rubs at his neck. “I like how I feel when I’m with you. Feels most like myself.”

When Akechi doesn’t respond right away, Ren almost regrets being so honest, eyes tightly closed with a firm wince. But when he opens them, Akechi is looking at him with alert eyes, one of his eyebrows raised. “Shit,” he chuckles. “You’re not just sentimental, you’re a  _ romantic _ , aren’t you?”

“Not usually,” Ren blurts out, but that confession only implicates him further, something he realizes only after he’s said it. “Guess there’s just something different about you, too.”

“Hmph,” Akechi sighs, but he’s grinning, and Ren knows well enough that it’s a sign of his amusement rather than derision. “I should have realized how easily you exposed yourself to me when you were so willing to take your glasses off for me.”

It’s a bit of a smug outlook on it, but Ren holds that memory fondly, thinking back on Akechi’s messy hair and how  _ cute  _ he’d looked in those. “I loved messing up that perfect image,” he smirks, matching Akechi’s smugness. “And it wasn’t just because I wanted to put my hands on you… Mostly. Kinda.”

Unexpectedly, Akechi laughs, straight from his stomach, and he tries to cover it up, sending the butterflies in Ren’s stomach bouncing off the walls. “You truly are something else,” Akechi sighs, his shoulders loose, to Ren’s delight. “But you were hiding behind those frames like a mask all the same. Perhaps that’s why I felt they didn’t suit you…”

“You did?” Ren perks up, briefly considering throwing his glasses away. “So then...you’d say you like me better without them?”

Ren’s shit-eating grin doesn’t turn Akechi off though; instead, Akechi pulls his legs up onto the bed and faces Ren properly. “So what if I do?”

It’s the moment he’d always heard about; the one where he’s supposed to  _ know _ a kiss is supposed to happen. It doesn’t feel real -- it isn’t, after all -- and even though Ren is pretty sure he could (and  _ would _ ) let himself be selfish and dive into a heated make-out, looking at Akechi so close, how raw this feels, and how much this means to both of them even if Akechi would never admit so, a different sort of urge takes control of him.

Ren tenderly rests a hand on Akechi’s cheek, pushing his hair back and sifting his fingers through it as he leans forward, eyelashes fluttering just shy of closed when he presses his lips to Akechi’s, kissing him slow and deliberate, lips loose and soft against him. It’s brief, but it lingers, Ren leaving his hand in Akechi’s hair when their mouths part and his eyes open. His gaze holds, heartbeat steady but suddenly louder, eyes able unwilling to tear themselves away from the sight of Akechi with his eyes closed, lips parted and loose, just like the rest of his body.

Ren doesn’t know exactly what that means, but he does know Akechi is pretty and nice to kiss, and he takes his chance to steal a quick peck, just as soft, ghosting over Akechi’s lips with no particular intent, until Akechi catches him by surprise with a hand on  _ his _ cheek.

“Why…?” Akechi questions, blinking excessively. 

“Should I not have done that?” Ren checks, but he doesn’t move one bit.

“I--” Akechi cuts himself off his time, pulling his own bottom lip between his teeth. “I don’t understand.” Ren doesn’t either, with a reaction like that, but he doesn’t want to pull away or break whatever mood the room holds. Akechi narrows eyebrows at him, but the hand on his cheek soon mirrors Ren’s, and Akechi initiates a similar kiss, so very very insistent, but even more slowly.

Ren smiles into the kiss unconsciously, unreasonably satisfied and inspired and  _ happy _ . He doesn’t think about what tomorrow brings, or what all their yesterdays could’ve been; this moment is its own. His smile is just wide enough to break their kiss, and Ren’s eyes open to find Akechi staring at him. “What?”

Akechi’s eyes don’t waver either. “Even now, you’re still surprising me,” he says with a faraway look in his eyes. “Of all the times you’ve behaved like a horny idiot, why not now? When I gave you an opening?”

“I am a horny idiot,” Ren laughs, unable to deny the truth. “But come on, how many times are you gonna make me confess?”

Akechi’s expression doesn’t change, eyes studying Ren’s face with long, lingering looks on each of his features. “You have feelings for me,” he states, so matter-of-factly that Ren is caught off-guard even though he’d just said so himself, flushing red.

“Uh, yeah,” he stutters with a grin. “Not sure how else you were reading me wanting to be with you so badly that a mad pseudo-scientist looked into my dreams and created a fake reality where I could do that.”

Akechi’s breath is sharp when he gasps this time, and after a pause he presses hands on Ren’s shoulders, putting the slightest bit of distance between them. “We should stop here.”

Ren blinks. “What--why?” His arms remain around Akechi, until he takes it upon himself to remove them and adjust his sleeves.

“Shallow desires are as easily forgotten as they are satisfied,” Akechi sighs, turning away from him, eyes downtrodden. “This is a much different situation if you want something I can’t give you.”

Ren blinks again. “Oh.” His shoulders drop, posture straining even more than it does naturally, and his hands pull into his lap, resisting the urge to hide in his pockets. “Oh…”

Akechi swallows tightly next to him, eyes still refusing to meet his, but his voice is unexpectedly soft. “You became too attached to a dream.”

Ren scoffs, self-deprecating, and crosses his arms. “If this were a dream, you’d want the same thing.”

He can’t see it, but Akechi’s cheeks flush red. The exact reasons are unclear, but Akechi’s reaction is to push himself onto his feet, face red as he turns to face him, eyebrows knit. “What is  _ wrong _ with you? Being so  _ spineless  _ as to even  _ consider  _ throwing your freedom and autonomy away all for the life of someone else. That selfless  _ bullshit _ .”

Each word is biting on the end of Akechi’s silver tongue, but Ren isn’t enough of a pushover to take it, standing his ground both literally and figuratively, facing Akechi head-on, but refusing to match the frustration in his voice. “This’d be easier if I was selfless, you know,” he shakes his head. “Why can’t you just accept that you’re special to me?”

Akechi takes in a shocked breath, eyes wide. He scowls, “Because only an idiot would--”

“So I’m an idiot,” Ren interrupts him. “I’m an idiot and you care about me and as usual you’re doing a shitty job of pretending you don’t.”

Akechi regards him for a long moment, one both of them push through silently, and Akechi soon lets his arms hang loose at his sides, shoulders shrugging. “And look where that got me.”

“Wh-”

“It’s far easier to accept one’s mortality when there is nothing worth living for,” Akechi groans, voice hushed. “But you’ve seemed especially hell bent on making that impossible.”

Ren wrinkles his browl. To unfamiliar ears it might sound like an insult, but Ren knows better. Akechi’s even pouting; he’s  _ pouting  _ and it’s the cutest thing Ren’s ever seen. “Holy shit,” he breathes. “You’re...that was romantic, wasn’t it?”

Akechi’s mouth tightens, hiding any pout he may have been exposing. “Don’t get used to it.”

Just for a while, Ren pushes aside the thought that he  _ can’t _ . Akechi isn’t hiding himself at this moment, and Ren isn’t going to let it pass without taking advantage of it. His arms wrap snugly around Akechi’s waist, chin resting over his shoulder, and Ren’s eyes close as he holds onto him. “It’s okay,” he sighs, wondering which of them needed this more. “I won’t forget you.”

Akechi sputters, hands hovering as he forcefully clears his throat. “You  _ insufferable _ …” There’s more to come, surely, but Ren just holds him closer and nods his head until he feels a recognizable shake in Akechi’s chest, and tears begin to flow as soon as he lets himself return the gesture, forearms pressing against Ren’s back, his fingers curling into the loose fabric of his nightshirt.

“Finally,” Ren teases lightly, successfully compartmentalizing and holding back his own tears for now; he can’t let them both lose it at the same time. “How long have you been holding that in?”

“Shut up,” Akechi bites with a sniffle, digging his forehead into Ren’s shoulder and squeezing him tightly as if it’s meant to be a punishment -- Ren doesn’t mind.

He’s so far from  _ minding _ that were this not the absolute worst possible situation to be in, he’d be smiling as his hand rests on the back of Akechi’s head and Ren takes in a deep breath to disguise the way he’s trying to memorize the scent of it.

After a moment, Akechi straightens up and pulls back his arms, quickly wiping his eyes with his sleeves until Ren takes over, wiping his wet cheeks with the back of his hand and watching him with a dazed look in his eyes. “Something to say?” Akechi questions, but he doesn’t have the strength to add any sass.

Ren smiles with one side of his mouth. “Not really. Just thinking I’m lucky to see such a pretty face up close.”

“Ugh, give me a break,” Akechi chides as he swats Ren’s hands away, but Ren isn’t bothered, offering a small smile and a shrug as he straightens out Akechi’s bangs. Akechi lowers his voice, “God, you really meant it, didn’t you?”

Ren shrugs again, more bashfully this time, a faint twinkle in his eye. “I never claimed to be complex. I like looking at you.”

Akechi scoffs, straightening out the wrinkles in his shirt and drying his eyes. “Even like this.”

“Especially like this,” Ren muses, faking an adjustment of the other’s hair so he can run his fingers through it and touch his cheek. “Fewer masks the better.”

It’s so sincere, and undoubtedly the most emotionally intimate touch Akechi has ever felt, something every cell in his body is aware of, and he watches Ren with similar curiosity. He doesn’t give any warning before his hand is holding the side of Ren’s neck and he’s pulling him closer, into a kiss with intent, a needy sense of longing on his lips as they pull at the other’s, until his brain catches up with him, and Akechi steps back, coughing into his loosely closed fist. “I don’t know what came over me. I apolog--”

“Don’t,” Ren cuts him off, moving as quickly as his limbs will allow him to wrap an arm around Akechi’s waist, hand reaching behind his head to dig fingers into his hair as he eagerly pulls him into a far more insistent kiss. It’s one he isn’t the only participant in either, a delighted gasp muffled between them when Akechi responds in kind, arms similarly snaking around Ren’s waist, fingers curling again into his shirt. 

It feels like more than a kiss, not only in all the cheesy ways Ren might be able to pull out, but in what it symbolizes, the two of them stealing something they’d been denied by fate, an act of rebellion all its own. With nothing to steady them, the shuffling of their feet shifts them around the room, Ren knocking against his shelves. A few items knock over, and his lei from his trip to Hawaii shifts off the corner and halfway onto his head. 

Ren reaches for it, and pulls it all the way around his neck, lightly twirling it with his finger. “Hey, Akechi~” he teases. “Am I getting lei’d?”

Akechi glares, but his cheeks are red. “I can’t stand you.”

Hearing that, Ren smirks knowingly. “Prove it.”

It’s too on-the-nose, too deliberate to be taken as a real challenge, but he knows Akechi will take it anyway. It’s even more than he was prepared for though, when Akechi grabs the end of the lei around his neck and pulls him in by it, already leaving Ren flushing around his neck, but his eyes grow wide when Akechi then rests Ren’s body against his own, and easily lifts Ren up, legs around his waist so he can lower him onto the bed, closely hovering over him, voice low. “Any more objections?”

Ren stutters his words in a way he hasn’t in months, before he spent so much time studying ways to be charming. Ironically, for moments like this. So much for reading, he thinks. “Uh, nope,” he manages after the surprise fades, and doesn’t hesitate to send his fingers right back into Akechi’s hair. 

He’s a good kisser -- a  _ really  _ good kisser -- and Ren would go forever if he could. He even tries, even when he’s running out of breath and his jaw is sore, but neither of them seems willing to give up first. Whether that be due to their competitive nature or the looming knowledge that other things will end when their kiss does, Ren isn’t sure; probably a bit of both.

Whatever the reason, they remain on the same page, kissing without interruption, without words, until their bodies give out for them. 

Akechi sleeps, and Ren watches. It’s not like he was going to sleep anyway.

A few hours pass like minutes, and though Ren still feels dazed, he’s acutely aware of when Morgana appears at the end of the bed, careful to jump right onto the windowsill behind him. “Boss will be awake soon,” he whispers. It’s still dark outside.    
  
“Right…” Ren whispers back, eyelids heavy when he looks up at Morgana to acknowledge it, movements as minute as he can make them so he doesn’t disturb his guest.

“You should get him out of here before that happens… Right?” Morgana prods him with a paw, tapping his shoulder. 

Ren looks down at Akechi’s sleeping face; sure, he’s feeling selfish, wishing they didn’t have to say goodbye again, but knowing he has to interrupt his last sleep makes him dread that for Akechi’s sake too. He can’t imagine what knowing you’re waking up for the last time would feel like. A slow nod towards Morgana signals his understanding though, and Morgana jumps down, disappearing from his sight.

Ren slides into position next to Akechi, facing him, resting a careful hand on his cheek. “Akechi,” he calls, and presses a kiss on his forehead. With no response, Ren calls his name in less of a whisper, kissing the corner of his mouth and stroking his cheek. This does get him to stir, and Akechi wakes up to Ren’s eyes meeting his first thing. Ren tenses and taps the side of Akechi’s head. “Time,” is as much acknowledgement as he’s willing to give.

Akechi quickly sits up, taking in his surroundings and clearing his throat. “I, ah--”

“You don’t have to say anything,” Ren reassures him, resting his hand on top of Akechi’s and watching their fingers.

“Thank you,” Akechi sighs, voice so small that Ren would never hear it were any there other noises to be heard. His eyes too land on their fingers, and Akechi curls them in, giving Ren’s hand a soft squeeze in place of all the things he won’t say.

In the blink of an eye, Akechi’s on his feet and putting his coat and scarf back on, heading towards the stairs and slipping his shoes on. He doesn’t look back to see if Ren is following, but he is, all the way out the front door of LeBlanc and onto the empty street, still clinging to the darkness of the night before. Ren finds himself outside in slippers and pajamas, ignoring the cold and instead watching Akechi though the clouds of his breath hit the air.

Initially he doesn’t plan to say anything, hung up on the silence and not being the one to break it, but Akechi stops walking and turns back to face him, taking a forceful breath in and out and consciously adjusting his peaceful grin into a smirk. “Well, Joker,” he drawls. “Make sure you’re well-rested for the job ahead of us.”

“Mm,” Ren nods, following along and smirking back. “Hope you’ve got enough stamina to outlast me this time,” he teases.

Akechi almost laughs. Ren can see it, at the corners of his mouth, but Akechi clears it away with a groan. “I hate you,” he says, turning on his heel.

“Yeah,” Ren agrees, watching as Akechi adjusts the glove on his hand. He’s only wearing one. Ren reaches into his pocket, gripping the other of Akechi’s gloves and waiting until he’s out of earshot. “Love you too.”


End file.
